With a high teen pregnancy rate, Tennessee wants to confront the problem head on. However, the preferred method for the state is not to talk about sex, but to talk about abstinence.

Tennessee has just passed a bill in its House and Senate revamping sex education. SB 3310 will promote “Family life education” for its sex education curriculum. This means a program “that builds a foundation of knowledge and skills relating to character development, human development, decision-making, abstinence, contraception and disease prevention.”

That sounds like an excellent idea. It would seem to cover all the bases so that young minds can carefully make their own decision from abstinence to contraception. Except that is not really what it is. The words are correct, but they are preceded by “an abstinence-centered sex education program.”

The entire sex education program revolves around abstinence. Any reference to contraception is simply a decoy. The program even calls itself “holistic” by denying basic sex information under the premise that sex destroys the mind and body. It only allows the discussion of contraception when it involves “medically-accurate information about contraception and condoms [that] clearly informs students that while such methods may reduce the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases or becoming pregnant, only abstinence removes all risk.”

The legislature may have to take one of these sex-ed courses themselves because they have failed to understand that a condom is a contraceptive. Calling these birth control methods contraceptives and condoms is like saying “I like dogs and Labradors.” When the bill writers don’t even know what they are talking about…

Discussing only contraception as it relates to abstinence means a narrow approach that will not adequately address the proper use and availability of contraceptives. This program is so slanted to advocating abstinence over true sex education that it discourages “any gateway sexual activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with non-coital sexual activity.”

Gateway sexual activity? Yes, apparently there is such a thing in Tennessee. Yet the part I like is that health messages are prohibited if they encourage non-sexual activity. While I’m not sure what health messages might promote this, it would seem that health messages are a good thing. Gateway sexual activity is never explicitly described outside of sexual contact that encourages sex. That is where uptight people with crazy ideas that sex is evil are going to speak against any contact between students.

Kissing, hugging, even holding hands can viewed as gateway sexual activity. About the only sexual activity that doesn’t involve hugging and kissing is a john with a prostitute. Texting might be a gateway sexual activity. The whole concept is looney. Tennessee is not going to solve its teen pregnancy problem by not talking about how teens get pregnant.